I never knew that I had a problem, until I caught myself turning up my nose at this video:

The MKA 1919 in the video worked well, and reloaded a heck of a lot faster than the tube-fed shotguns I’ve always used.

“Who needs that?” I caught myself thinking.

That’s especially rich, coming from the the same guy who caught himself day-dreaming over the IWI Tavors that rolled into my neighborhood gun store yesterday.

What’s with the hang-up? Why the disconnect? Why do I drool over the latest tacti-cool rifles and pistols, but turn up my nose at modern shotguns?

I suspect it has something to do with the fact that I grew up with a pump shotgun. My first hunter safety class at 12-years-old concluded with a chance to fire two shots from a Remington 870 pump at a couple of clays. Some of my favorite coming-of-age memories involved deer hunting with a Savage pump in the swamps and thickets of Halifax County, North Carolina. Later on, when I had a young wife and small child at home, I purchased a simple Maverick 88 12-gauge for home defense.

Throughout my life, a simple-tube fed pump was something I could trust, as long as I did my part. If I’m honest with myself, however, I have to admit that I’ve short-stroked a pump on more than one occasion under stress, causing a failure-to-extract or a failure-to-feed.

Shouldn’t I be able to trust a semi-automatic, magazine-fed shotgun that operates similarly to a rifle that I already know, using a proven gas system design, especially when I’d most likely be running it as it was designed to run, using full-power buckshot loads?

Maybe it’s time for me to put the Elmer in me out to pasture. Being a traditionalist is fine, but it seems silly to miss out on something new, just because it is new and different.

It’s time to get in touch with the gun’s importer, RAAC, and see about getting a MKA 1919 for review.